Zutara week 2018
by turtleducklingg
Summary: My entries for zutara week 2018. Enjoy!
1. Day 1 - first kiss

Two teenagers sat on the dock, their shoes in the water and their heads tipped towards the sky. Fireworks bloomed in the air and lit up the sea, vivid orange cutting through the thick darkness of night.

"They're beautiful,"

He glanced at her as she said it, her cobalt eyes illuminated orange and a smile on her lips. He looked away.

"They're in celebration of Sozin's comet, since it's in two days," he told her, following the light with his eyes. "If you look closely, you can see that they all fade out into comet shapes."

She pulled her eyes away from the sky, smile fading.

"Sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to ruin them for you. I mean, they _are_ beautiful,"

"It's okay, it's not your fault. War has a way of ruining beautiful things."

The statement hung in the air; it was true, painfully so. He wondered what kind of world he could've lived in if he was born in a different time, what kind of life he would've had. Maybe his sister would have kept loving him, maybe his mother would have stayed, maybe there would be no meeting to speak out in, no scar and no banishment and no-

No what? No learning from his uncle, no realising his mistakes, no joining the avatar? _Maybes_ were pointless - he doubted his father would've been a loving man if there was no war, and even if he was, contemplating it wouldn't change anything.

"You're scared, right?" She asked, head suddenly turned towards him and eyes wide, resembling a child's. It hit him right then how young she was, how young _they_ were; teenagers, fighting in a war started by an dead man.

"Of course I am," he said, meeting her gaze. "I think we all are."

"I knowI just- everyone's acting like they're not scared; you, Sokka, Toph. I mean, I'm acting like that too, for Aang, but... I just wanted to make sure I'm not the only one who's scared."

He thought back to the last time he showed he was scared: he was thirteen, and the lesson that fear was weakness stayed with him long after that day.

"I am scared - I know I'm not one to show it, but I am."

Her eyes softened slightly, lingering on his own for slightly too long; it was moments like these, with their gazes locked on each other in the dead of night, that made Zuko wonder if she returned his feelings. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind as quickly as they came, though - they were in the middle of a war, and getting into anything would only make it hurt more if- well, if one of them didn't come back.

She looked away, staring at her shoes before slipping her hand into his. He glanced at her again; she seemed nervous, as if she wasn't sure whether she should've done it. He squeezed her hand, hoping it was comforting in some way.

"I don't want to die." She whispered, voice shaky and eyes fixed on the water. He paused, unsure of what he could say to make her feel better.

"I don't either." He said, stopping for a moment before continuing, "and I can't tell you that we're definitely going to win or aang's definitely going to kill the fatherlord or we're all definitely going to come back. But I think- I think if anyone can, it's us."

There was a moment of silence and he bit his cheek, hoping he hadn't made her feel worse, when a faint smile appeared on her face.

"The firelord," She said, smile growing; he gave her a confused look. "You said fatherlord. It's _firelord_."

He furrowed his brows. "I know it's firelord, I _said_ that."

"Sure," She teased, smile still plastered to her face for a few moments before it faded slightly. "Thank you, though - really."

His lips curved upwards. "It's no problem."

He looked back up at the sky, unaware of how her eyes were locked on him. Silence filled the air for a few moments as she watched him, hair wafting on the breeze and lips slightly parted. His eyes looked like the were on fire, orange light in the sky reflecting onto his irises.

Before he could quite grasp what was happening, her fingertips were brushing his jaw, slightly unsure, and her lips were on his cheek. It barely lasted a second, but her lips were soft and her hand was warm and Angi knew his heart was pounding out of his chest right now. He stared at her, eyes widened in surprise and mouth slightly gaping, and she immediately pulled her hands away.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that, I just- I needed to before the comet, in case... in case we don't make it back."

His eyes were still on her, expression now less shocked and more unreadable. Her cheekbones and the tip of her nose were illuminated by the fireworks and a coral colour dusted her cheeks; his gaze brushed over her, following the waves of her hair and the arch of her brow, catching on her lips.

He reached up to cup her chin, eyes catching hers before he leant in, letting her close the gap between their lips. It wasn't a rough kiss by any means, no tongue or teeth or anything of the sort, but it wasn't quite chaste either; their lips moved together, his hand moving to cup hers again and before they pulled away.

They both stared at each other for a second, silence filling the small space between them until he spoke.

"In case we don't make it back."

She grasped his hand a little tighter.

oo0oo

SO first entry of zk week and it's already late.. sorry yall this isn't my best writing but enjoy I guess ?? I'll try my best to write more for this zutara week, I'm super excited about some of the prompts!


	2. Day 3 - tea

She gave him a different name each day.

Zuko had come to count on her walking into the Starbucks he worked in, the same old, tattered book tucked under her arm and a slight curl in her hair, every day without fail. She would enter at 4pm on the dot, shoot him a smile, order a green tea latte, and read until her drink went cold; the only thing different about each visit was her name.

The first one she had given him was Analisa. He had told her it was a pretty name and she had thanked him politely, slender fingers running through her dark locks as she ordered her tea. When she had come in the next day and told him her name was Maria, he gave her a confused look; she simply laughed, and he couldn't help but get a little lost in the way her eyes lit up with humour.

It continued on like that, with her becoming Katie or Melissa or Olivia each day, except that somewhere along the line, his confusion turned to expectation of a different word to write on her cup. His uncle had once told him that names create attatchment to their owners, and though that may have been true, he seemed to have become quite attached to this girl. At first, it was just her appearance - and there was no denying that she was beautiful; big, blue eyes and rich, dark skin and hair that fell down her back in waves - but through the months of seeing her each day, he'd become familiar to the way her eyes lingered on the menu for the few seconds despite her getting the same thing each day, the way she glanced over at him every few seconds as she waited for her drink, the way her hands turned the thin pages of her book. And yet, he had no idea of her real name - but that was going to change today.

She walked into the shop at 4pm as usual, book under her arm and curl in her hair, and shot him a smile.

"One tall green tea latte, please,"

"Eat in?" He asked, just to make sure; she nodded. "Okay, and your name, please?"

Her eyes lit up a little as she opened her mouth. "Isabe-"

"Your _real_ name," he insisted, before giving her a smile. "please,". It sounded more like begging her than telling her, but she grinned all the same.

"My name's Katara."

He couldn't help but be surprised. After all the common names she had given him, he wasn't expecting her real name to be so uncommon; it seemed to put all the _Analisa_ s and _Olivia_ s to shame.

" _Katara_ ," he repeated, slightly dazed. She laughed and he snapped out of it, embarrassed at how _stupid_ he must've looked. "You just- you have a really pretty name. Well, beautiful, actually. I don't know why you'd even want to give me all those other names when your own name is so nice, I mean-

She laughed again, and even though she was laughing at him and his rambling, he couldn't help but admire how absolutely stunning she looked when she was humoured.

"How about you come sit with me when your shift's over, and I'll tell you all about my different names."

"That sounds great, but my shift ends at-"

"I'll wait."

* * *

Sure enough, she was still there with her book and her gone-cold tea when he walked over to her table. He greeted her with a slightly unsure _hey_ , and she gestured for him to sit down.

There was a small moment of silence and he glanced around the table, furrowing his brow slightly. "Why do you always let your drink go cold?" He blurted out, quickly realising how strange he must've sounded. "Sorry, I just- I've had green tea lattes before, and they're not the nicest cold. And not to sound strange, but why do you always red the same book. Its been months that you've been reading it, and I _know_ I've seen you reach the end a few times now, and..." He stopped, wondering what point he was trying to make.

"You're very observant, Zuko," She said with a small smirk, and he nearly jumped out of his skin before he realised that she would've seen his name tag every time she ordered tea.

"Sorry," he mumbled, running his fingers through his hair in the hope to feel slightly less awkward.

"Don't be, it's cute." She complimented, and his hand froze in his dark locks as he felt himself blush. "Besides, I think I have another question of yours to answer before telling you about my cold tea.

When I first came in, I changed my name for conveniences sake, since people always spell my name wrong. Embarrassingly enough, when I came in the next day, I forgot what I had said my name was, so I just made up something new. I didn't think you would've noticed, and even though you did, you looked so cute when you got confused that I couldn't help but keep changing it whenever I came in. Course, you stopped getting confused after a while, but I guess it became a sort of habit, to give you a different name each day. Besides, I thought it'd be kind of weird to just _stop_ after a while.

And about the tea... well, this is going to sound really dumb, but I'm not actually too fond of green tea. I just wanted to keep coming in until you finally asked what my real name was, which, admittedly, took longer than I expected. I don't like coffee, so I kept getting this thing," she gestured to her drink. "and the book is just my favourite thing to read." She paused for a moment, moving her gaze from the tea to the person at in front of her. "Are those all your questions answered?"

He blinked a few times before speaking, going back to running his hands through his hair. "Uh, yeah, I think that's all of them." He paused, noticing the expectant look on her face. "I mean, uh, maybe there's one more, if you'd be willing to... y'know, give me your number? If that's okay with you, you don't have to or anythi-"

She was already grabbing his hand to write it down. "I was hoping you'd ask." She told him with a smile; her hands were colder than he'd expected, and her writing was small and neat. He looked down at the 10-digit number, and the name _Katara_ written underneath, and then looked back up at her.

"Just don't forget to call, okay?" She said, hand still ghosting his own, and by Agni, he knew he definitely wouldn't forget.

* * *

Another late entry, but an entry nonetheless. I'm going camping tomorrow and staying for a few days, and I'm pretty sure im not gonna have service, so I might be publishing all my entries after I come back. Hopefully I can go into a starbucks each morning to get wifi or something and publish them then, but if I don't publish anything for a few days, you guys know why


	3. Day 4 6 - turtleduck bloodbending

They walked back in silence, shadows shrouding their faces and rain pouring down above them. The air was heavy and their footsteps heavier, any attempt at stealth now forgotten, and the quiet between them seeming solid, unbreakable; it was more of a necessary silence than an awkward one, but it put Zuko on edge nonetheless.

When the finally got back to where they had landed, Appa greeted them with a subdued roar. Zuko gave the bison a pat and began to climb onto the saddle, glancing back at the waterbender to find her standing at the foot of the beast, hands curled into loose fists and hair dripping wet, a strangely vulnerable look covering her face.

"Can we stay here tonight?" She asked, voice quiet, quavering slightly on the last word. "I just- I need one night before we start heading back. Please."

He glanced around; they were in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest, but the fact that they were still in the Fire Nation wasn't exactly relaxing. They could be ambushed at any moment, and neither of them, especially Katara, were in good enough states to fight; if they ended up being captured by the Fire Nation, Zuko had no doubts that they'd be thrown in prison if they were lucky, and executed if they weren't (and knowing his luck, the latter seemed far more probable). But, looking back at her, he noticed how her eyes had lost the storm that raged inside them earlier that night, replaced with a dull blue-grey, full of a kind of desperation that made it clear that she'd rather risk being ambushed than go back to the rest of the group any time soon.

"Yeah, sure. Come up on Appa though, it's more comfortable." He said, gesturing at an empty space on the saddle for her to sit. She bent the water out of her clothes and hair wordlessly, and he was surprised to see that she did the same for him; given her previous attitudes towards him, he had thought that she would want to see him shivering and soaked with rain water, but maybe she was too tired to care. He grabbed her hand to help her up onto the bison, frowning at how cold her fingers were against his own. "You're freezing, Katara - did you bring a coat with you?"

She shook her head, pulling her hand away as soon as she sat down. "It's fine."

His frown only deepened. "Yeah, it's fine if you want your fingers to fall off," he said, watching as she curled her hands back into fists, eyes avoiding his stare. "Sorry. Just- you can have my cloak, if you want."

He pulled the cloak out of his bag, laying it near her in case she wanted it and letting out a breath he didn't realise he was holding when she took it; she had gotten barely any sleep on the journey there and eaten almost nothing, so he was relieved that she was at least making sure she didn't freeze.

He glanced at her, tired eyes and tangled hair and head resting in her hands, still sitting up with the cloak draped around her legs.

"Night, Katara. Get some rest." He told her, voice low and steady as he laid down and shut his eyes. Minutes passed, and both teenagers could tell that the other wasn't asleep; Zuko opened his eyes, finding Katara in the same position she was in when he had closed them.

"Seriously, you need to get some sleep," he said, sitting up. "You've been awake for over 24 hours, and you only got a little bit of sleep last night."

She looked up to meet his eyes, her own eyes dropping and framed with dark, purplish bags. She sighed, dragging her stare back to her hands. "I can't sleep, okay? I get... _dreams_ , sometimes. And with everything that's happened, I know I'm gonna get them tonight."

He knew from the way she said it that _dreams_ really meant _nightmares_ , and Agni, he was familiar with those. Every night for months after his banishment, the face of his father cut into him whenever he closed his eyes, golden eyes glowing with malice and red hot flame curling around his fingers, the words that he bellowed that day echoing in his mind as he slept. He would wake up covered in sweat, the left side of his face burning and a pained scream caught in his throat. Even now, he went to sleep with the fear in the back of his mind that he'd wake up crying or yelling or begging his father to have mercy on him; that would definitely make things a little more awkward with his new friends.

"Okay, you don't need to sleep, just... Eat something, yeah? I'll stay up with you." Admittedly, he was tired, but Katara didn't seem to be in the best state of mind, and if she needed to cry or scream or just sit in silence, he'd rather she not feel alone when she did it. He rustled around in his bag, finding two apples he had packed when they left; he handed one to her and she took it, biting into it immediately. She ate for a few moments before stopping, stare locked on him and brows slightly furrowed.

"Why are you doing all this?" She asked suddenly, eyes wide and voice almost accusatory.

He pulled his apple away from his mouth, head cocking slightly at her sudden question. "Well, I've had my share of - yknow, _dreams,_ and I know they're definitely not enjoyable. The least I can do is give you some food to distract yourself."

She frowned, gaze still following him. "No, I mean... _everything_. How are you being so nice to me after all I did tonight?"

He stared at her for a moment, his expression unreadable and his eyes appearing paler in the darkness. "Because you needed this. And I trust that everything you did tonight, you needed to." He paused, his words hanging in the heavy, night air. "And you also need someone to be nice to you right now."

He watched as her blue eyes glistened slightly; she pulled her knees up to her chest and blinked - one, two, three times - before shaking her head. She thought of what she had done tonight, the fury that blurred her vision as she felt the push of a nameless man's blood against her hand, his body completely under her control, his life at her mercy, as if he was a puppet. She had promised herself she would never bloodbend again, never allow herself to have that power, and yet when the time came, she did it without a second thought.

"No," she protested, voice louder, darker. "No, I don't deserve you to be nice to me. Did you even see what I did back there? I _bloodbent_ , Zuko. I bent that man's blood and he wasn't even the man I was looking for. Not to mention I almost _killed a man_ \- how are you not judging me or yelling at me or telling me that I shouldn't have done any of those things? How are you just sitting there and acting like you don't think I'm a _monster_?"

"You're not a monster, Katara." He said, shaking his head. "You were angry and heartbroken, and you wanted him to feel the same pain you did - I'd be much more concerned if you were calm and unbothered about finding your mother's killer. And even so, it's not my place to tell you what you should and shouldn't have done. She was your mother, not mine."

She stared at him in disbelief, wishing that his words weren't so genuine. Out of everyone, why did it have to be _him_ that knew exactly what to say? Why did it have to be him that didn't preach to her or shake his head or pretend to understand exactly how she felt?

"What was your mom like?" She asked, desperate to get the conversation off of what she'd done that night. She thought back to that day in the crystal catacombs; she had convinced herself that he was lying about his mother and his scar and everything else after he turned his back on her, but maybe, just maybe, he wasn't.

His eyes widened in the dim moonlight. "My... my mom?" He questioned, running his hands through his hair as she nodded. "My mom was... she was the kindest person I've ever known. Her hands were always warm and she was always smiling, even when everything was going wrong. She always smiled for us, for me and Azula." He seemed lost in the memory, in the thought of her. "She would sit with my, by the pond in the garden, and watch the turtleducks swim. We named them all, when i was younger, and only we knew all their names."

She wished she could've said his mother sounded like an amazing woman, or that she was sorry she was gone, or anything similar, but the words were stuck in her throat. The only thing she could choke out were a quiet, quavering four words that she hadn't said in years.

"I miss my mom."

She had been holding back tears ever since they had begun walking back, the sound of Yon Rha's heaving breaths behind them, but hearing those words leaving her lips pushed her over the edge. Tears began to stream down her face, coating her cheeks and her lips and hanging off her chin, quiet sobs filling her throat.

Meanwhile, Zuko wasn't quite sure what to do. He wanted to comfort her in some kind of way, but he wasn't even sure if she still hated him or not, much less if she wanted him to offer her some way of making her feel better.

He couldn't just sit there and watch her sob her eyes out, though - he put a hand on her shoulder, hoping it seemed warm, and not stiff and uncomfortable. Maybe he had succeeded, or maybe she was just tired and upset and emotional, because she bowed her head and cried some more, leaning towards him until her forehead pressed against his chest.

They sat there, for a while - tears soaking into fabric of his shirt and his hand brushing her hair, slightly awkward, but thoughtful nonetheless. And maybe he was imagining it, but he could've sworn that he heard her whisper _thank you._


End file.
